Loss of millions

AUA strike also cost the airport dearly

The planes took off again on Friday, but the 400 previously canceled flights resulted in many losers.(Bild: Martin Jöchl)

The 36-hour AUA strike, which ended on Friday lunchtime, has had a bitter financial impact: the airline estimates the damage caused by the works meetings and strike at a total of 24 million euros. However, Vienna Airport and many service providers such as stores and restaurants are also losing large sums of money.

In an interview with the "Krone" newspaper, Vienna Airport CEO Günther Ofner now names the total financial losses: "The regrettable result is not only extremely annoyed passengers, but also losses in the double-digit millions at AUA, as well as a loss of at least two million euros at the airport, but also further losses at all service providers at the airport."

Ofner makes no secret of his anger: "Everyone is left with their losses as a result of this completely disproportionate strike action. Only AUA's competitors can be happy. AUA employees will also feel the long-term damage for a long time to come."

Günter Ofner, CEO of Vienna Airport: "Only AUA's competitors can be happy. The long-term damage will also be felt by AUA employees for a long time to come."(Bild: Andreas Hofer)

Once again, the airport boss expresses his incomprehension towards the demands of the union and the AUA staff representatives: "I have been negotiating collective agreements for more than 30 years, but never before have demands for a salary increase of 40 percent ever been made. Three months ago, the collective agreement for 2024 was concluded for the foreign airlines in Austria, i.e. AUA's competitors, with a salary increase of around 9.5 percent. This alone shows how unrealistic and unfulfillable the demands of Vida and the AUA on-board works council are."

The planes took off again on Friday, but the 400 previously canceled flights resulted in many losers.(Bild: Martin Jöchl)

Strikes cost airline 15 million euros
Ofner is thus echoing AUA CEO Annette Mann, who estimates the damage as follows: the strike cost EUR 15 million, with the works meetings to date accounting for EUR 9 million.

Mann made it clear this week: If the union's package of demands were accepted, 60 percent of the routes would be negative and the growth course would be jeopardized. If this were to happen, AUA's parent company Lufthansa would probably prefer to use aircraft from its own low-cost airline subsidiaries on a number of the affected routes in future. Currently, for example, various vacation destinations are served by the Lufthansa subsidiary brand Discover and many other routes by the company's own low-cost carrier Eurowings.

Passengers returned from Friday afternoon. However, AUA is already warning that the parent company Lufthansa is more likely to use its own low-cost subsidiaries such as Discover or Eurowings in future if labor costs are too high.(Bild: Martin Jöchl)

With this warning, Mann has put the rod in the union's window on the one hand, while on the other hand fueling the dispute even further and taking it to the next level of escalation. The AUA works council now wants to discuss this threat at a further works meeting next Thursday. This is to take place from 9 a.m. and it is still unclear how long it will last. The result will once again be many flight delays, possibly even cancellations ...